


never throw away the sword in your soul, but also, you should probably be a little picky about who you let wield it

by stuffandsundry



Series: gods are bound to humans, not the other way around [1]
Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe - Noragami Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 02:50:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16945563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuffandsundry/pseuds/stuffandsundry
Summary: Shinpachi doesn't know this guy at all. He's got weird white hair and eyes the color of a dried nosebleed and he's so ridiculously suspicious looking but—(the feelings of hands calloused from days upon years of practice, steady and true, just like arealsamurai)— somehow, Shinpachi really, really wants to trust him.(gintama au with noragami worldbuilding, minor to no prior knowledge of noragami needed)





	never throw away the sword in your soul, but also, you should probably be a little picky about who you let wield it

This is Shinpachi's first real memory:

There's a lot of noise. Muted colors flash by but there's nothing to focus on, like he's the only person who exists in a blur of color and he's on the verge of scattering like dust and there's nothing solid to grasp onto—

And then: someone reaches for him, and whoever it is says these words—

_You, who have no home to return to, and are unable to freely pass on. I will grant you a place to stay. My name is Gintoki. Now, relinquish thy name in death, and become my servant, bearing the name I bestow. By my decree, you become my shinki. Thy name is its reading, thy vessel its sound. I call thee as my divine instrument. Thy name is Shin. Thy vessel is Arata. Come, Araki!_

And everything rushes into focus like putting on glasses. (Glasses. Yes. He has glasses because his eyes are bad, and he has black hair, and his name is—)

"A bokuto, huh…" A stranger muses, as he swings him through the air. (Wait, what?) "You know what, I can dig it. Let's go."

And that's when he notices the brawl going on and there's a six foot tall Amanto made of solid muscle headed their way and he starts screaming on the inside because he's never really fought before (has he? no, not in the shape of a weapon, not like this) and this is terrifying and exhilarating all in one breath— and only one breath, because the fight is over (one hand on strong solid wood strike up then hilt to forehead— enemy down) before he knows it.

"Not bad. I'll call you... hm. Shinpachi? Yeah, that works. Shinpachi it is."

And now he’s not a sword anymore and he's flat on his back in the dirt road looking up at the sky.

_What just happened?_

A man comes into Shinpachi's field of vision.

"Sup," says the man, and somehow Shinpachi can tell what he's going to say before he says it. "I'm Gintoki.”

The man grabs him by the wrist and pulls him upright. “Uh… I’m the god of… let's go with happiness, I guess? Eh, whatever. Anyways, you're my shinki now, so let's get going before the cops get here, alright?"

Shinpachi doesn't know this guy at all. He's got weird white hair and eyes the color of a dried nosebleed and he's so ridiculously suspicious looking but—

(the feelings of hands calloused from days upon years of practice, steady and true, just like a _real_ samurai)

— somehow, Shinpachi really, really wants to trust him.

He follows.

* * *

 

"I can't believe you're a god," Shinpachi says, trailing after Gintoki. "You don't look anything like what I thought a god would look like."

Gintoki picks his nose disinterestedly. "What did you think I'd look like, then?"

Shinpachi looks him up and down. "I don't know. Better dressed?"

"Hey, I'll have you know that this is divine garb, you know."

"Really?"

"…okay, fine, no. You got me. This was on sale at Unikloo. I mean, always thought that the whole shinki as divine garb thing was weird, anyways, like alright, fine, a coat or a suit of armor, I can see why you'd want something like that, but what about the poor shinki that gets stuck as a bra or a thong or something? You going to go into battle shoved up your god's naughty bits? Hey, isn't that embarrassing as hell?! What kind of life is that?"

Shinpachi frowns. "What are you talking about? What _is_ a shinki, anyways?"

"Eh? We had a scene transition, so I assumed a narrator infodumped all the relevant bits for you."

"Narrator? What narrator? Nobody's told me anything!"

"Ah, shit, my bad…" Gintoki hums thoughtfully to himself, like he’s organizing his thoughts. Shinpachi waits patiently. "Um… basically, I take care of you, and you take care of me. That's about it."

Shinpachi’s eye twitches. "WHAT KIND OF EXPLANATION IS THAT?"

Gintoki winces and covers his ears. "Damn, you've got a good set of lungs on you. Fine, since you're working for me now I guess I can take the time out of my busy, busy schedule to explain. Ah, we're here." He comes to a stop at the foot of some stairs, and Shinpachi blinks in surprise. He hadn't even noticed that they'd walked so far already.

"Is this where you live?" he asks.

"Nope." Gintoki says. "It's where _we_ live, now. Come on, don't just stand there. It's a pain in the ass walking and doing exposition at the same time."

* * *

 

Gintoki kicks his heels up on his desk. "Okay, so. Shinki."

Shinpachi leans forwards a bit from where he's sitting on the couch. "Yeah?"

"That's you. A human that forms a contract with a god, which give you the ability to take the form of a sacred tool. Well, I say sacred tool, but they can be anything, really. Weapons, armor… I once saw a dude who was a pair of safety scissors. Nearly took a guy’s eye out."

"I've never heard of shinki before, not even in stories."

"Yeah, you wouldn't have. Only the wandering dead can become shinki."

Shinpachi sputters. "D-dead?!"

"Yep."

"But I'm not— this isn't— but what about me?!"

Gintoki sighs. "Kid, just take a look at what you're wearing. You think that you coulda gone out in the street like that without attracting attention? You're still in your goddamn funeral clothes."

Shinpachi unconsciously grabs his yukata (yukata? It shouldn't be a yukata, it's mostly the right color but he wears a, a—) Now that he's pointed it out… Gintoki is right, it's _too_ white and he should have at least gotten some weird looks for ghost cosplay in broad daylight or something. But he didn't. Nobody had looked at either of them twice.

"I can't be dead. You're lying." His chest is getting all weird and tight. "I'm not _dead._ "

"Well, look on the bright side—"

" _Bright_ side?" Shinpachi's voice squeaks with the effort of holding back tears. "What kind of bright side could there possibly be?"

"There's a difference between dead and gone, kid." Gintoki's voice is mild, even as he looks at Shinpachi with eyes that give nothing away. "You're one, but not the other. Unless you want to be."

Shinpachi's dead, but... not gone? But what's left for him? He doesn't remember anything from his life, he has nowhere to go—

Something soft hits him in the side of his face and he glances up. Gintoki's not looking in his direction anymore, but where else could this wrinkly but still more or less clean handkerchief have come from?

_I take care of you, and you take care of me._

Oh. It's like that, isn't it?

Shinpachi takes a big shaky breath and wipes away the tears that he hadn't noticed were threatening to fall. "So," he asks. "What exactly do we do for a living here?"

It’s brief, but Shinpachi swears that Gintoki smiles at him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is an experiment! mostly because i think there's a lot of fascinating similarities between noragami and gintama, and i think that they go well together. 
> 
> ive got a couple other ideas (kagura + yato gods, the amanto war + what happened to the japanese gods, shinpachi's lost memories + his sister, and literally don't even get me started on the shinsengumi) so if you liked this, tell me what you'd be most interested in seeing next!


End file.
